Murder Ballads
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
1996 ReleasedUpvote Your Favorite Album Today!
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Digging into Murder Ballads - what's your favorite track or standout moment? 🤘
1
Song of Joy
06 : 51
2
Stagger Lee
05 : 19
3
Henry Lee
04 : 02
4
Lovely Creature
04 : 17
5
Where the Wild Roses Grow
04 : 01
6
The Curse of Millhaven
06 : 59
7
The Kindness of Strangers
04 : 43
8
Crow Jane
04 : 18
9
O’Malley’s Bar
14 : 32
10
Death Is Not the End
04 : 27
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Track Lyrics
Song of Joy Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Have mercy on me, sir
Allow me to impose on you
I have no place to stay
And my bones are cold right through
I will tell you a story
Of a man and his family
And I swear that it is true
Ten years ago I met a girl named Joy
She was a sweet and happy thing
Her eyes were bright blue jewels
And we were married in the spring
I had no idea what happiness a little love could bring
Or what life had in store
But all things move toward their end
All things move toward their end
All things move toward their end
On that you can be sure
Hit it
[Verse 2]
Then one morning I awoke to find her weeping
And for many days to follow
She grew so sad and lonely
Became Joy in name only
Within her breast there launched an unnamed sorrow
And a dark and grim force set sail
Farewell happy fields
Where joy forever dwells
Hail horrors hail
Was it an act of contrition or some awful premonition?
As if she saw into the heart of her final blood-soaked night
Those lunatic eyes, that hungry kitchen knife
Ah, I see sir, that I have your attention!
Well, could it be?
How often have I asked that question
Well, then in quick succession
We had babies, one, two, three
We called them Hilda, Hattie and Holly
They were their mother's children
Their eyes were bright blue jewels
And they were quiet as a mouse
There was no laughter in the house
No, not from Hilda, Hattie or Holly
"No wonder", people said, "poor mother Joy's so melancholy"
Well, one night there came a visitor to our little home
I was visiting a sick friend
I was a doctor then
Joy and the girls were on their own, yeah
Oh yeah
[Verse 3]
Joy had been bound with electrical tape
In her mouth a gag
She'd been stabbed repeatedly
And stuffed into a sleeping bag
In their very cots my girls were robbed of their lives
Method of murder much the same as my wife's
Yep, method of murder much the same as my wife's
It was midnight when I arrived home
Said to the police on the telephone
Someone's taken four innocent lives
They never caught the man
He's still on the loose
It seems he has done many, many more
Quotes John Milton on the walls in the victim's blood
The police are investigating at tremendous cost
In my house he wrote "his red right hand"
That, I'm told is from Paradise Lost
The wind round here gets wicked cold
But my story is nearly told
I fear the morning will bring quite a frost
So I've left my home
I drift from land to land
I am upon your step and you are a family man
Outside the vultures wheel
The wolves howl, the serpents hiss
And to extend this small favour, friend
Would be the sum of earthly bliss
Do you reckon me a friend?
The sun to me is dark
And silent as the moon
Do you, sir, have a room?
Are you beckoning me in?
Hit it!
La la la la la la la la la la
La la la la la la la la la la
Lovely Creature Lyrics
[Verse 1]
There she stands, this lovely creature
There she stands, there she stands
With her hair full of ribbons
And green gloves on her hands
So I asked this lovely creature
"Yes," I asked, "Yes," I asked
Would she walk with me a while
Through this night so vast?
She took my hand, this lovely creature
"Yes", she said, "Yes", she said
"Yes, I'll walk with you a while"
It was a joyful man she led
Over hills, this lovely creature
Over mountains, over ranges
By great pyramids and sphinxes
We met drifters and strangers
O'er the sands, my lovely creature
And the mad, moaning winds
At night the deserts writhed
With diabolical things
Through the night, through the night
The wind lashed and it whipped me
When I got home, my creature
Was no longer with me
Somewhere she lies, this lovely creature
Beneath the slow drifting sands
With her hair full of ribbons
And green gloves on her hands
Crow Jane Lyrics
[Verse 1]
Crow Jane Crow Jane Crow Jane
Horrors in her head
That her tongue dare not name
She lives alone by the river
The rolling rivers of pain
[Refrain]
Crow Jane, Crow Jane
Crow Jane, Ah hah huh
[Verse 2]
There is one shining eye on a hard-hat
The company closed down the mine
Winking on waters they came
Twenty hard-hats, twenty eyes
In her clapboard shack
Only six foot by five
They killed all her whiskey
And poured their pistols dry
[Refrain]
Crow Jane, Crow Jane
Crow Jane, Ah hah huh
[Verse 3]
Seems you've remembered
How to sleep, how to sleep
The house dogs are in your turnips
And your yard dogs are running all over the street
[Refrain]
Crow Jane, Crow Jane
Crow Jane, Ah hah huh
[Verse 4]
"O Mr. Smith and Mr. Wesson
Why you close up shop so late?"
"Just fitted out a girl who looked like a bird
Measured .32, .44, .38
I asked that girl which road she was taking
Said she was walking the road of hate
But she stopped on a coal-trolley up to New Haven
Population: 48"
[Refrain]
Crow Jane, Crow Jane
Crow Jane, Ah hah huh
[Verse 5]
Your guns are drunk and smoking
They've followed you right back to your gate
Laughing all the way back from the new town
Population, now, 28
[Refrain]
Crow Jane, Crow Jane
Crow Jane, Ah hah huh